Toney Vast-Binder

Toney Vast-Binder is a Transformation Coach with the UChicago Network for College Success (NCS). In his role, he supports partner school leaders in examining their current outcomes, practices, and identities to find ways in which they can improve the educational experience, especially for their Black and brown students. Toney also leads the Midwest Regional Network Team which brings together schools from across Illinois and Wisconsin to find common areas for collaboration and improvement in support of improving the transition into 9th grade for students. Before joining NCS, Toney served as Assistant Principal at Lake View High School (LVHS) for 4 years. During that time, he helped found LVHS’s first Freshman Success Team, which worked to increase the average on-track rate of ninth graders from 83% to 93%.

In addition, Toney supported the establishment of the Instructional Leadership Team at Lake View, as well as the identification of Reading Apprenticeship as the staff-selected framework for instruction in all content areas. Prior to becoming the Assistant Principal, Toney was a Social Studies and Art teacher for 9 years at LVHS Toney received his B.A. in History and his M. Ed. at DePaul University. Above all else Toney loves being a dad to his two amazing kids. He is also obsessed with movies, music, and podcasts and is always looking for good recommendations.